5 Bad Communication Habits You Need to Break Immediately

Success in any field requires a clear understanding of the most effective ways to communicate with others. Poor communication skills on the other hand can not only damage your reputation but also cause your company to lose business.

We all have one thing in common when talking: We want to be listened to. So if you’re one of those people who tend to jump in and interrupt or even worse, try to complete people’s sentences for them, you need to keep yourself in check.

You might think your constant interjections are a way to show your level of engagement, but they really just make you a conversational bulldozer.

Billionaire businessman Warren Buffet told a classroom of business students that being an effective communicator doubles your value in the workplace. Buffet said that he would give $100,000 to any student in the room in exchange for 10 percent of their future earnings. And if the student was an effective communicator, he would increase the bid by 50 percent because the investment had more value.

I asked my workplace colleagues to share some bad communication habits they have encountered and they had a lot to highlight.

Take a look at these five common faux pas.

1.  Interrupting people.

This bad pattern could tie in with making assumptions. You may assume you know what someone means and want to skip over the long explanation.

If that’s not what’s motivating you to interrupt, you are probably a poor listener.

You focus too much on what you want to say and can’t wait for your turn to speak. When you interrupt people too much, they may stop talking to you because you’re not listening.

2.  Using qualifiers

“Don’t take this personally, but…”; “This might be a bad idea, but…” or “I know what you’re thinking, but…”

Qualifiers exist for nearly every situation. But if you have the tendency to overuse them, you may be driving people up a wall. Why? Well, while these prefacing statements might seem like a great way to sugarcoat your sentences, they often just come off as condescending and unnecessary.

3.  Failing to pay attention to the person talking to you.

You communicate disinterest when you allow yourself to be distracted by your phone, the television, or other people instead of listening.

Good communicators set aside their phones and tune out other distractions so that they can give their attention to a speaker.

4. Equating your experiences.

Tell me if this situation sounds familiar: Someone is explaining a difficult problem he’s currently facing. You immediately retort with “I know exactly how you feel!” and then launch into your own long-winded tale of a time you experienced something that’s not even the least bit similar. 

It’s important to remember that human experiences are all different. Your attempts to show empathy are admirable. But in most cases, you’re better off just listening and lending support.

5. Using filler words

“Hey, Jason. Umm … I’m just checking in on that, uhhh … report to see if you think you’ll, like, have that done by the end of the day.”

This is perhaps one of the toughest bad habits to break. We’re all so used to littering our sentences with these unnecessary words; it’s like a nervous tic for most of us. But make your best efforts to cut them out. Your conversations will be much cleaner and more polished.

Do you find yourself guilty of any of them? Well, it’s time for you to pull in the reins and stop immediately.

Breaking a bad habit isn’t always easy. But channel your energy into removing this faux pas from your conversations and you’re sure to be a better communicator.

Better yet join this communication skills training course.